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2018 Welcome Week Micro-Seminar Proposal

Since 2006, the Micro-Seminars Program has provided a forum to enhance interactions between our faculty and new undergraduates. Occurring over two sessions during Welcome Week, the Micro-Seminars give students an opportunity to become more familiar with college-level discussions before starting their schedule for the regular semester. Faculty also have the opportunity to explore specialized topics, introduce students to college life or the essentials in a given field of study, or canvas recent developments in research or society.

All full-time and part-time faculty are invited to participate, including both those who routinely teach undergraduates and those who teach in graduate and professional programs across all of our schools on the University Park and Health Sciences Campuses. This is a unique opportunity for faculty in our graduate programs to interact with first-year undergraduates.

Please note that each Micro-Seminar takes place in two parts over two days. Part 2 is a continuation of Part 1 with the same students. Before submitting your proposal, be sure that your schedule can accommodate the following dates and times:

Part 1: Thursday, August 16, 2018 from 2:30-4:00pm

Part 2: Friday, August 17, 2018 from 10:00-11:30am

All Micro-Seminars will take place on the University Park Campus.

The program is intended for new freshmen students to become more comfortable participating in a college-level discussion in a relatively low-stakes environment (without grading) as they enter their first semester at USC, and also to introduce them to the variety of scholarship and academic opportunity conducted across campus. Micro-seminar proposals intended solely for promotion of an individual course or major/minor program are not typically accepted.

The contact is a total of 3 hours over two days just prior to the start of the Fall semester. Seminar topics vary widely, but generally fall into a few categories:

giving students an overview of an advanced or cutting-edge topic in research (examples: “Stem Cell Therapy – Hope or Hype?”or “Introduction to 3-D Printing”, or “21st Century Media: An Evolving Global Digital Landscape”)

exploring advanced/specific topics of interest in a given field of study (examples: “Female Directors in Early Hollywood”, “Concussion in Sports”, “Cybersecurity and Privacy”, or “Religion and International Relations”)

sharing information on current affairs from the perspective of a given discipline (examples: “Irreverence: American Political Humor and the 2016 Presidential Election”, “The Grand Challenge of Ending Homelessness”, or “Gender Roles and Global Violence Against Women”)

providing an overview of what it means to study in a particular field (examples: “Accounting – the Real Deal”, “Studying Engineering”, or “Is Entrepreneurship for You?”)

introducing students to aspects of USC, Los Angeles, or college-life in general (examples: “Theatre in Los Angeles”, “The Culture of Food in Los Angeles”, “Healthy Start To College Life At USC”, or “Losing the Stress Habit: Managing Stress in Daily Life”)